I could spend a lifetime island-hopping in the south of Thailand, there are so many beautiful spots to explore. I’d heard a lot about the tiny island of Koh Tao but hadn’t got round to visiting last time I was in the country. It’s renowned for its diving but as a big fish phobic, I was heading there for the chilled atmosphere and beautiful scenery.

Having booked a rather last minute airbnb room, we found ourselves a far cry from the luxurious villa we had previously been staying in. However the owner greeted us with welcome arms, gave us some fantastic tips for our trip and even bought us a couple of beers when we ran into him at the pub one evening!

Koh Tao was everything we hoped it would be. It was relaxed, quiet and felt a little less ‘coupley’ than Koh Phangan had. Our favourite thing about the island was that everywhere was walkable. With neither of us a particularly dab hand on a moped it was nice to be able to explore the island without relying (if you can call it that) on a tuktuk.

We based our stay on the recommendations of our room owner, who easily managed to convince us to stay another night. We got a boat over to Sai Nuan Beach where we managed to do some good snorkelling on a small beach that was much less crowded than the main Koh Tao strip. Another day we headed over to Chumpon where we decided to leave the chilled beach to explore and stumbled across Banana Rock – our highlight of Koh Tao. The treehouse reggae bar overlooks the clearest water I have ever seen and we spent our afternoon drinking mango smoothies and snorkelling.

Evenings in Koh Tao were beach bars, fire dancers and stunning sunsets. The streets are lined with hipster shops, quirky bars and incredible local food. Spending my day on the beach and my evening drinking gin and tonics and being pulled on stage for a ladyboy show finale is probably my best life moment to date.

Our final stop in Thailand was Koh Samui and well…. what happens in Koh Samui, stays in Koh Samui.